General location based services allow for the determination of the location of a user on a specific client device. These location based services allow for the ability to locate and identify where the client device is being used within some level of precision or tolerance. These location based services are restrictive however, as they are unable to enable any sort of coupling with other devices traveling in the same vicinity as the client device. Therefore current implementations are unable to match together multiple mobile devices to identify joint movement of the devices.
A trip sharing service is an example of an application that incorporates a complex system that may be effectively implemented in conjunction with mobile devices. An application can generate a shared trip for drivers and passengers based on receiving a service request for a potential trip and matching the service request to a preexisting trip. The trip service may be designed to maximize the users' convenience in the organization of shared trips, by finding an appropriate trip for a user, as well as appropriate passengers on each trip. If multiple users did take a ride together in the trip service, it would be of particular help to have a system that would recognize and confirm that the multiple users did jointly travel together. Unfortunately, currently implemented location based services do not provide for this.
Thus, there remains a need in the art for a system and method for identifying joint movement of mobile devices. There also remains a need in the art for a system and method to identify joint movement of mobile devices in conjunction for use in a trip sharing service.